This Sunday the Church will celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. My boyhood parish was named for Christ the King and so this Feast has a special importance for me. I recall in particular the imposing Rose Window, round and colorful, situated over the altar at the parish. It depicted Christ, crowned and seated on His throne of glory, holding the world in His hand.

Kings are a rather foreign concept to us in this country. Our country was founded with the intent of avoiding any concentration of powers in one person. It was the bitter experience of our national founders that unilateral and unconsented to actions by a single leader were often a cause of unrest or injustice. George Washington is said to have refused to become a king when it might have been possible given his popularity and meritorious service to the new country.

This Sunday we celebrate precisely the kingship of Jesus. We celebrate not only His authority and power as the Creator of the world, but that He is our King. We are His subjects. Both of those thoughts are important to our faith.

The kingship of Jesus underscores His unique authority over all creation. It is a statement of truth and a description of reality. Jesus as the Son of God came to love us, to die for our sins and to teach us the truth to which the world must conform to enter into the Father’s house. As Pope Francis constantly reminds us, He loved the poor, and He was meek and humble of heart.

The basis for His doing so, however, was not that He was merely a great man among us. Instead His claim was that He is the Son of God equal in dignity to the Father. He told the world that the Father had sent Him and He came in obedience to the will of His Father. The Gospels tell us that people were astounded at the authority of Jesus’s teaching. Even Pontius Pilate asked if He were a king. In short, people recognized the divine and kingly authority in the person of Jesus from the first.

But recognizing that Jesus is a King, what does that mean for us, His followers? What possible relevance can that have for us in our modern world where individual rights mean so much more than an empty title of royalty?

First, it means that we must accept the authority and the greatness of Christ in our lives and in the world. As our King, we are bound to honor and obey Him. It is the nature of subjects. This, then, is a part of the truth that helps us to understand our place in the world and our relation to Christ. It is a call to humility. We are not doing Jesus a favor by giving Him our respect and obedience. It is, rather, as we say in each Mass, right and just.

In acknowledging the kingship of Jesus, we also recognize His power over all creation. Our human use of free will, even distorted as it often is by the deformation of sin, is meant to conform to Christ. One day, all the world will be set right, in harmony with Jesus’ will as King. On that day, the power of Jesus will be fully revealed.

As servants, we rightly ask, what kind of king are we serving? Human experience has known ruthless and unreasonable monarchs. It has also known those who loved and served those over whom they ruled. Kingship, even in this world, is meant to be for the good of the king’s subjects. And that is where we find ourselves. We are subjects not just of Christ the King who demands that we do our duty towards Him. We are ruled by one who deeply loves us. He demands our obedience and all of our hearts, not just part of them. But all of that is because He knows that we were made for His Kingdom. Our life of faith here and now, even with all its challenges and sorrows, is preparing us to be with that King. In short, Jesus wants also to be the King of our hearts.

Some modern philosophers have famously said that an all-powerful God would be a competitor and a threat to the happiness and freedom of modern man. The Solemnity of Christ the King reminds that our King and God, with all power and all love for His subjects, far from being a threat, is the best thing that could happen to us.

Happy Solemnity of Jesus our King!